DETROIT — Season-opening games can be symbolic and motivational. For the Giants, the idea was to use their visit to Ford Field to prove that this revamped team was new and different.

Rebuilt and re-energized, the Giants wanted to expunge the embarrassment of last year’s lost season, a campaign most notable for a dysfunctional offense led by a mistake-prone quarterback.

The Giants had eight new starters and a new play-calling guru, Ben McAdoo, the offensive coordinator. But new players and new plays did not lead to a new result.

Giants Coach Tom Coughlin said it best at the conclusion of a 35-14 rout by the Detroit Lions.

“A nightmare performance,” he called it.

Coughlin had been terrified by his team’s ineptitude before. The Giants started last season 0-6. For one night at least, it had all happened again.

“We played very poorly and don’t have a lot to be proud of,” Coughlin said.

Coughlin listed the things the Giants had hoped to do Monday: avoid turnovers, run the football effectively and play solid pass coverage.

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Manning was hit by defensive end Ezekiel Ansah during the second quarter.CreditPaul Sancya/Associated Press

Instead, Eli Manning made two poor decisions that led to two costly second-half interceptions. The Giants rushed for only 53 yards, an average of 2.4 yards per carry. The defensive secondary looked befuddled and gave up 346 passing yards to Detroit quarterback Matthew Stafford.

“You name it, we did it,” Coughlin said.

And then there were the other things the Giants did not do — like look demonstrably different on offense. The terminology was changed, the scheme was redesigned and the tempo was hyper-quick, but it led to familiar statistics: 197 total yards, two sacks, just 3.5 yards per play (compared with 6.6 yards per play for Detroit).

Not to be left out of the futility, the Giants’ defense gave up 417 yards and allowed the Lions to convert two-thirds of their third-down tries — even when it was third-and-13, or third-and-11.

Said Coughlin, nodding toward the locker room: “I don’t think there’s anybody in that room that doesn’t realize that the bubble has been burst. There’s a lot of work to be done.”

Failure in a first game does not doom a season, but so much of the Giants’ woes looked similar to last year’s breakdowns. The offensive line could not open holes for the running backs. Pass protection was spotty and had Manning on the run most of the time. The wide receivers frequently looked out of sync with Manning, who completed 18 of 33 passes for 163 yards. The Giants had a punt blocked, and ill-timed penalties helped stall two drives.

They had brief rallies and moments of accomplishment, but they were too few. And as the Giants often did last season, they dug themselves an almost overwhelming hole from the outset — which is not how a team desperate to reconstruct its confidence likes to begin a physical, emotional contest.

On the game’s fourth play, defensive end DeMontre Moore missed a chance to sack Stafford, who squirted to his right. At the same time, there was confusion between the Giants’ defensive backs, who were caught looking toward Stafford. Cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie shifted to his left just as safety Stevie Brown came sprinting over from the right. They collided, and no one went with Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson, who ran uncovered to the middle of the field. Stafford lofted a pass to Johnson for a 67-yard touchdown.

On the Lions’ second possession, Stafford connected with Johnson for another touchdown and a 14-0 lead. There was still more than five minutes left in the first quarter.

Operating out of a no-huddle offense, the Giants came alive. Manning threw a 19-yard reception to tight end Larry Donnell, and Rashad Jennings had some productive runs. But the drive stalled, and the Giants were forced to punt.

But Detroit was called for roughing punter Steve Weatherford, and the penalty revitalized the Giants. Jennings carried for 14 yards, and a defensive pass-interference penalty in the end zone gave the Giants a first down on the Detroit 1.

At this juncture, McAdoo proved that he was not your typical Giants offensive coordinator. He called two alley-oop corner fade passes that were incomplete, a run that failed to crack the end zone and then finally completed one of the corner fade routes — to the 6-foot-6 Donnell — for the first touchdown of the season.

The half ended with the Lions ahead, 14-7, but the third quarter did not start well for the Giants. On a third-and-9 play, Manning threw over the middle for Donnell. It was a quick timing play, but Donnell was not looking for the football, which bounced off his leg and was intercepted by DeAndre Levy.

After the game, Manning took the blame for the turnover, saying that he tried to force a throw in because he thought Donnell was open briefly.

“I threw the ball too soon,” Manning said. “A bad decision by me.”

The interception led to the first of two Detroit field goals. Another third-quarter interception thrown by Manning — running to his left, he underthrew Victor Cruz and the floating ball was picked off by the Lions’ Glover Quin — set up a 5-yard touchdown run by Stafford.

“Also a bad decision,” Manning said of the throw toward Cruz. “I was trying to get it out there, but I couldn’t get as much on it as I wanted to.”

The Giants rebounded with an 80-yard, 12-play drive to cut the Detroit lead to 27-14 early in the fourth quarter. Donnell made a catch over the middle to pick up a first down on a third-and-15, and Jennings scored on a 1-yard run, but it proved to be the Giants’ last gasp.

Detroit closed out the scoring by dominating the Giants’ defense with an 80-yard touchdown drive that took more than seven minutes.

When safety Antrel Rolle, a defensive leader, was asked if the outcome reminded him of last year, he shook his head.

“Last year was last year,” he said.

But he had an opinion about Monday’s game.

“It was disgusting,” Rolle said.

EXTRA POINTS

Defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul left the game in the first half with a neck injury but returned to finish the game. Punter Steve Weatherford injured his left ankle when he was run over on a punt. He was wearing a protective boot after the game.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B17 of the New York edition with the headline: Giants’ Shiny New Look Has a Rusty Old Feel. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe